Cedar Plank Grilling!

It's officially no longer summer weather in Seattle, having gone from 90 to 60 overnight... meaning that clearly, tonight was the best night to expand our grilling skills. :)  Tonight we tackled a recipe from the vegetarian section of the most recent Cooking Light Magazine.  It called for cedar planks, which I was excited to go out and purchase, if only because using them made me feel pretty big-time in the kitchen (or on the grill, as it were).  Turns out you're supposed to soak the planks in water for a good chunk of time (anywhere between 1-24 hours, depending on if you believe Williams & Sonoma's packaging or the recipe), so we soaked them in the bathtub for as long as we could stand before it was time to grill.  The other three are still soaking now, making our bathroom and most of our house smell deliciously like cedar. (Even Kobe's absorbed the smell in his fur!)   Making the stuffing turned out to be easy and it worked out perfectly for me to do that while Derek shelled out the zucchini.  We were both on hand to watch the plank and make sure we didn't burn our house down in the process.  (That area by the window in particular carries some pretty awful luck for us this year, no?).

When they finally made it to our plates, they were absolutely delicious!  The flavoring was perfect and you could really taste the smokiness from the cedar planks.  We were more than full after eating two each.  Definitely a repeatable dish - and one to add to our menu for the next cookout we host!

Plank-Grilled Zucchini with Couscous, Spinach, and Feta Stuffing

Cedar planks lend this dish a pleasant smokiness.  If you don't have planks, cook the zucchini halves directly on the frill.  Use zucchini with some heft; if it's too thin, it may get too soft. 

2 (15x6.5x3/8inch) cedar grilling planks

2 1/4 c organic vegetable broth

1/2 c chopped shallots (about 1 large)

1 (10oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained  (we used farm fresh!)

3/4 c uncooked couscous

1/2 c (2oz) diced feta cheese

1/4 c chopped fresh mint

2 tsp grated lemon rind

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

6 medium zucchini (about 2 lbs)  (we used 4 and will easily get 2 meals out of it for each of us)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1.  Soak planks in water 1 hour; drain

2. Preheat grill to medium-high heat

3.  Place broth in a large skillet over med-high heat; bring to a boil.  Add shallots and spinach; cook 5 minutes.  Stir in couscous.  Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes.  Stir in cheese and next 5 ingredients (through pepper). 

4.  Cut each zucchini in half length-wise; scoop out pulp, leaving a 1/4 in thick shell.  Sprinkle salt evenly over zucchini.  Spoon about 2/3c stuffing into each zucchini half. 

5.  Place planks on grill rack; grill 3 minutes or until lightly charred.  Turn planks over; place zucchini on charred sides of planks.  Cover; grill 12 minutes or until tender.  

Yield: 6 servings (serving size - 2 stuffed zucchini halves).  

*Note: We used all the ingredients as stated except just 4 zucchini and there was just enough stuffing... I would suggest doubling the stuffing ingredients if making more than 4 servings* 

Also, bread update:  It's edible!  A bit dry, but we'll work on that! We'll see if it stands the sandwich test over the camping weekend with M&J.

My new food journey...

It started with finally getting around to one of the books that had been on my goodreads to-read shelf for a while - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver.  I was completely inspired and then began a slew of non-fiction summer reading, greatly surrounding the topic of eating a healthier, local diet.  Now that summer's ending, I'm back at home making a commitment to shop and eat more locally and seasonally, taking more joy in the cooking process and concerning food in general.  It's working well so far, thanks to Derek's compliance and Michal's encouragement and partnership-in-crime.  Here are the first steps we've taken:

1.  Find some new restaurants to add to our repertoire.  

 We won't ever stop eating at our favorite places or restrict ourselves when we're out to eat, but I went looking for some restaurants that would complement our efforts.  Thanks to a teacher friend, Stacy, (who recommended it on her amazing blog) we headed to Emmer & Rye for an end of summer catch-up dinner with the Friesens.   E&R's slogan is, "seasonally inspired, locally derived," and the food was de-li-cious.  We ordered four appetizer plates and three half portions of a main course, so we really got a sampling for what they offer.  There wasn't a single thing I didn't wish I could go back for every night.  We will definitely add this delicious place to our regular rotation.


2. Renew our subscription to our long-abandoned CSA

We belonged to Full Circle Farm's CSA a few years ago but quit because we just didn't feel able to use all the ingredients... chalk it up partly to laziness, partly to our inferior culinary skills, and partly to forgetfulness to pick up our box at the designated pick-up spot.  Fortunately, we're more committed, (slightly) more culinarily advanced, and FCF now delivers to our doorstop.   I made sure to be more intentional when reviewing our upcoming box contents on the website, making sure to request substitutions for a few items I know we wouldn't use with a few items I would have had to shop for anyway... provided they were from FCF itself or the Pacific Northwest (they offer items from elsewhere that I won't select).  Another exciting aspect, though, is that they have greatly expanded their selection of green grocery items you can add to your order.  We got all the produce shown above in our (standard sized) box as well as various green grocery items: whole pasture raised chicken, butter, eggs, cheese, tofu, yogurt, pistachios, and sausages... all local and organic!!!  The chicken went right to the freezer for a time when we get up the strength to take out the innards on our own (good-bye, days of handy little Butterball packages), and I've planned out uses for every single piece of produce in the next week so we won't have lots of guilt over spoiled food.


3.  Buy produce at the height of the summer season from local farmers and freeze it for meals during the winter. 

We spent a day researching different chest freezers to put in our garage and are close to finding the right one for us - just need to check and see if any local stores carry a good, affordable 7.0 cu freezer before looking to the bigger stores.  We decided 7.0 cu was the right size since we don't want it to be so big it will go unfilled, can't afford to spend too much money, and think, from looking at a floor model in Lowes, that a 5.0 would just be too small.  When headed back from Madison Park beach the other day, the peach guy was parked on the side of the road, offering deliciously succulent peaches for sale.  I was in my bathing suit so I sent Derek out to get some and he came back with nine pounds.  We don't have the freezer yet, so we're working hard to eat peaches morning, noon and night... and we're not complaining.  They are so sweet and juicy!  (shown here a few days after purchasing, with the farm apricots mixed in).


4.  Cook more.  Eat (real) food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.

Thanks to Sherrie, I'm now in possession of the hilariously entertaining and so-far-so-good culinarily inspirational cookbook, Eat, Shrink and be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski.  (She sold me on it once we sat down to eat a yummy pad-thai recipe we made from the book... more on that later).  It helped us make a new favorite we'll be adding to our rotation, "Parma Chameleon," which is essentially an easy tofu parm.  I haven't tackled the task of making pasta sauce yet, but that's coming!  We also made Savory Sauteed Kale which was a recipe I got from Full Circle Farm's newsletter archives.  After coordinating with Michal, I have a full menu planned for our upcoming camping trip this weekend, all which looks to be healthy, delicious, and free of processed foods (stay tuned for upcoming posts). 

And, finally, I tried my hand at making bread tonight!  That meant locating and dusting off the bread maker and doing an extensive internet search to find the owner's manual (the original of which has long since been discarded).  It's a funny shape because that's the way the pan is, but I'm hoping my first attempt at whole wheat bread is at least edible.  Kobe would clearly take a stab at taste testing if I'd let him, as he's proving in this last shot, but it's bedtime, so we'll let it cool overnight before slicing.



... and, that's where I'm at in my new culinary journey.  I'm excited to see where we go from here!  Wish us luck!



*Michael Pollan's  Omnivore's Dillema (too technical), Food Rules (excellent and concise), In Defense of Food (essentially Food Rules, expanded slightly further), etc.  (The quote in #4 is from Food Rules).  Next up will be: What to Eat by Marion Nestle.